From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 5, 2026
Anti-draft rally organized by leading Haredi rabbis to be held in Jerusalem’s Romema tomorrow
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Members of the Hasidic and Sephardic ultra-Orthodox community are planning an anti-conscription rally tomorrow in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood, along Yirmiyahu and Sarei Israel Streets at 7 p.m.
The rally is the initiative of a group of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Moshe Tzedakah, a member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, as well as rabbis representing, among others, the Slonim and Chernobyl Hasidic groups.
It is also connected to the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members which is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
While attendance will be significantly lower than the 200,000 ultra-Orthodox men who blocked the entrance to Jerusalem last October, organizers claim “tens of thousands” of people are expected to turn up tomorrow.
The Times of Israel Community.